A31 battery life

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apastuszak · #1 Post by **apastuszak** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:12 am

I have a ThinkPad A31 that is about 1 1/2 years old with Windows XP on it and ThinkPad power management drivers. I can't even get 1 hour out of the battery. My coworkers tell me this is typical, but it seems insanely short to me. Is there something I can do to lengthen the battery life? My R51 gets almost 3 hours! I would hope I can get 2 hous out of the A31.

Milos · #2 Post by **Milos** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:52 am

I have a ThinkPad A31 that is about 1 1/2 years old with Windows XP on it and ThinkPad power management drivers. I can't even get 1 hour out of the battery. My coworkers tell me this is typical..

I get ~1h on a 3.5 year old A31, but I'm on battery cycle #499, and at this point my battery has reduced in capacity from the nominal 43Wh down to 10Wh (time for a change). You can click "Battery Information" on the IBM battery gauge for your info..

My A31 went down rather fast in capacity, but it wasn't only 1h in the first year or two.. I did get a couple of hours.

The help file in the Battery Health tab of the battery info window above says something about cycling the battery to completely empty and then charging back to full. While this is a valid approach for NiMH batteries, I've read in several places on the web that cycling Li Ion batteries does nothing positive and that they basically lose ~20% of max capacity per year.

Anyone with concrete info on this?

Milos

masterus · #3 Post by **masterus** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:25 am

Hi
Maybe Have you 4 cell battery..I've 6 cell battery..and always I can work about 2h:10min..offcourse I don't use in that time my cdrw/dvd drive..
Regards

HenryW · #4 Post by **HenryW** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:13 pm

add a ultrabay 2000 battery

djpharoah · #5 Post by **djpharoah** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:18 pm

Get additional batteries.

When I bought my refurb A31 from IBM, I bought 2 more main batteries.

Now since I split the time between the three batteries, my batteries have low cycles. I get aobut ~2-2.5hrs.

#6 Post by **underclocker** » Mon May 15, 2006 4:30 pm

Power management is greatly improved with Pentium M based machines like the R51 - which is why I often recommend that people minimally start with an R40 with a Pentium M when they are looking for cheap ThinkPads. However, two hours would be more typical with an A-series. Your battery might be a lower capacity unit or worn.

Choni · #7 Post by **Choni** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:17 am

I have always had the same problem with my A31. Never have had more than 1/2 hour of battery time that I can remember. And it runs a Pentium 4 M.

You wouldn´t happen to have recovery disks for XP Pro in English?

ElbertR · #8 Post by **ElbertR** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:35 am

Use the 'Thinkpad Configuration' utility to check your battery health.

This program has a 'battery information' screen (under the 'power management' menu) that will tell you a lot of information about your battery: cycles, full charge capacity and others.

If you don't have this utility, you can just download it from Levono.

If you use your battery a lot then it is quite normal for them to loose most of their capacity over two years.

A31 battery life

A31 battery life

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